Richard "Dick" T. Hurley, Jr., 88, left this world on November 21, 2025, with his wife, Carolyn, and son, Rich, by his side. He was born on August 1, 1937, in LaCrosse, WI, the eldest son of Dick, a railroad engineer, and Florence, a nurse. As a child he was disinterested in school. He regularly stared out his classroom windows wanting to be outside exploring the bluffs above the Mississippi with his brother Bob, mates, and a sling shot.

He was schooled and disciplined by nuns (and Florence!) at Holy Trinity School and Aquinas High. He graduated from St. Mary's College (MN) in 1959, then pursued a PhD at Notre Dame. While conducting research on spruce-fir forest ecology in the Catskills, he met and fell in love with Carolyn Wilson. He and Carolyn were married in the Notre Dame chapel in 1961. Their first child, Rich, was born in 1962. Dick's work was published in the journal Ecology and he left Notre Dame to take a position at St. Francis College in Ft. Wayne.

Dick and Carolyn had three more children in the next three years, Janet, Peter and Tricia. As a dedicated teacher at a small Catholic institution, his family jokes that he took the same vow of poverty that his sisters-in-Christ colleagues took. In the late 1960s and early 70s the family attended St. Mary's Catholic Church in Ft. Wayne where "war is not healthy for children and other living things" banners hung from the arched vaults and people of all backgrounds sang and made community together. Despite his love of the ritual of the Latin mass, Dick and his family eventually came into conflict with Roman Catholic teachings and left the church. In addition to his deep intellectual curiosity, Dick had a wry sense of humor. He and his friends formed the tongue-in-cheek Church of Biomystical Skeptics of which he was elected the Big Whoopie.

In 1976, Dick took a sabbatical to finish a doctoral degree at Idaho State University. He moved the family to Pocatello and performed ecological field studies of Townsend's ground squirrel and examined the Kuhnian paradigm shifts in 20th century ecology among other scientific explorations. He returned to St. Francis in 1978, where he served as a beloved professor for over 50 years. In the summer of 1996, he returned to the Catskills to revisit his field research and included his children, Janet, Peter, and Tricia as research assistants. For decades he co-led May-term field studies in the American Southwest and Appalachian Mountains. In 2015, he retired from St. Francis as the college's senior faculty member. As professor emeritus he continued to curate the extensive herbarium housed in the college biology department.

Dick will be remembered by his friends and family for his loyalty, selflessness, steadiness and love of nature. He led his family on regular woodland walks and hikes instilling in them a love of teaching, ecology, and the outdoors. All four of his children went on to pursue studies and careers in the biological sciences. For years he tended an impressive victory garden on the college campus with Toby Derloshon, Paul Schuler, and Earl Kumfer. He was an at-home gourmet famous for his paella. Since the 1990s Dick and Carolyn gathered weekly with friends over dinner calling themselves the POETS (Piss on Everything Tomorrow is Saturday).

Dick was grateful to reunite with his siblings for his sister Pat's 97th birthday in October 2024. He was predeceased by his parents, his brother-in-law Clayt Jensen ("the fifth brother"), His sisters-in-law Betty Hurley and Pat Hurley, and nephew Steve Jensen. He is survived by his wife, Carolyn, his children, Rich Hurley, Janet Hurley (Lesley), Tricia Hurley (Mark), and Peter Hurley, his three grandchildren Tylan, Anna and Holden, as well as his siblings Pat Jensen, Bob Hurley, John Hurley (Ruth) and Jim Hurley, his many nieces and nephews, and valued fellow POETS, Biomystical Skeptics, colleagues, and former students all who knew him as a good and wonderful man.

Memorial services will be held on Saturday, November 29th, 1-3:00 p.m., Divine Mercy Funeral Home followed by a 3:30 reception at St. Mary Magdala Spiritual Center, Ft. Wayne. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that Donations in his memory be made to ACRES Land Trust.